Introduction

The
Gloster Gladiator was the last biplane operated by Britain’s Royal
Air Force. Obsolete, it was forced into combat duty until late 1941 when
sufficient quantities of Spitfires and Hurricanes were delivered to the
fighter squadrons. The British relegated the Gladiators to weather reconnaissance
which they performed for the rest of the war until again replaced by the
Spitfires and Hurricanes. The .303 machine guns were removed and a thermometer,
a head lamp for illumination and air humidity measurement instruments
were installed. The last British Gladiator flew on January 7th, 1945.

The
Gladiator was also exported by Gloster in the late 1930’s. Lithuania
and Latvia bought the planes which, upon their annexation by the Soviet
Union in 1939, were taken into the Soviet Air Force. After the beginning
of Operation Barbarossa, these same fighters were taken over by the Luftwaffe
and used as training aircraft.

The Gladiator was also used by Ireland, Egypt, Sweden, Norway, Portugal
and the Free French air forces. Belgium also obtained 22 Gladiators in
1938. This is the version that I chose to model. Sadly, the Gladiator
performed as one would expect when facing the then-modern Luftwaffe in
1940. The Belgium Gladiators valiantly fought on the opening days of the
1940 German blitzkrieg in defending their base at Shaffen-Diest on 10
May and in escorting a flight of Fairey Battles attacking the Albert Canal
bridges. Most of the Gladiators were lost fighting against the greatly
superior Bf-109s.

The Kit

Roden
presents their version of the Gloster Gladiator in 1:48 scale in a strong
box with a very representative painting of the British version of the
aircraft on the cover. The kit contains three sprues: 2 tan sprues containing
95 pieces and 1 clear one with 6 pieces. In general; the sprues are thick
and can require significant effort to remove pieces from them. The larger
tan sprue contains the major pieces of the fuselage, wings and flight
surfaces. A good portion of the flight surfaces require cleanup of flash.
The fuselage exterior is nicely detailed. The flight surfaces lack the
same degree of detail but have very minimal pour marks. The smaller tan
sprue consists of three sub-sprues. These consist of the engine, cockpit
and ancillary pieces. Compared to the other sprues, the pieces on this
sprue were relatively flash free. At most one or two pieces required clean-up.
The clear pieces had significant flash which was easily cleaned.

The
instructions were contained in a 12-page booklet. The cover page contains
a nice description of the Gloster from which most of the above was taken.
It also contains a well laid out diagram of the sprues with part numbers.
Assembly is completed in 12 steps on a page-and-a-half. There is very
good use of expanded illustrations to show piece placement. The bulk of
the booklet is devoted to the paint schemas for 9 aircraft (2 British,
Lithuanian, Soviet, Norwegian, Swedish, Latvian, Belgian, German) and
large drawings showing decal placement and rigging.

Decals for all 9 aircraft are closely packed on single sheet. The decals
are tightly trimmed and do not require any trimming prior to use. The
colors are sharp.

Assembly

The
instructions begin with the cowling. The fit is generally ok, requiring
some sanding to tweak. Some decision as to which version of the Gladiator
you wish to build must be made here with the installation or not of a
blank for the air intake. I chose to go with the intake, reducing to 5
the versions I could build. The next discrimination isn’t until
Step 8 with the choice of the front windshield and of the guns.

The
engine is the most complicated assembly of the model. It is a good fit
but care must be taken to watch orientation of pieces, in particular that
of the cylinders (piece 50C). I will give fair warning that I had significant
trouble with the engine firewall (piece 56B) and ended up leaving it off
to fit the engine to the fuselage. Even with sanding, I could not get
it to fit neatly within the fuselage.

The next several steps assemble the air intake, the instrument panel,
both main landing gear as well as the cockpit. There were no significant
issues except for significant sinkholes in the main struts. These were
filled with Squadron White Putty.

The
most significant assembly is accomplished in step 8 with the assembly
of the fuselage. This step requires the trapping of three sets of pieces
between the fuselage parts: the cockpit, the instrument box behind the
cockpit and the instrument panel. It can be frustrating and requires patience
as there are no guides to hold the pieces in their appropriate place.
Ensure the guns are well attached so they don’t come loose in later
steps as they did for me. While the instructions call for installing the
canopy pieces at this point, I left them off until after the body was
painted.

The
flight surfaces are the center of attention for the next couple steps.
I have to say I was impressed with the quality of the fit between the
various pieces. Nice and tight. Just because I could, I offset the rudder
and put the ailerons of both main wings as well as the tail in a dropped
position. As with the canopy, I left the upper wing off to make the painting
easier.

The final two steps involve the installation of assorted elements of
the plane. The major assembly is the attachment of the main landing gear.
These gave me great fits as both gear required a degree of effort
to fit into their slots. In the end, sanding of the gear root was necessary
to get it in and some White Putty to fill gaps. When in place, they do
fit beautifully… just be careful how many times you crack the fuselage
seams doing it!

As I indicated above, I chose to build the Gladiator as it would appear
in Belgian use in 1940. While not an all-over paint scheme, it’s
easier than the British camouflage scheme. The Belgian scheme consists
of silver on the fuselage and wing/tail undersides with green upper surfaces.
The forward half of the cowling called for bronze but I used burnt metal
which looks like a heated bronze anyway (and I like the color).

I
airbrushed Future Floor Polish on the model to aid decal installation.
With the assemblies painted and decaled, I set to attaching the upper
wing to the body. With some frustration, I ended up attaching one main
strut at a time to the upper wing, moving to the next when the prior was
secure. This took time but resulted in a strong and solid assembly.

Painting and Decaling

I
wanted to install the rigging to give the plane a realistic look. As the
wings were solid (not two pieces glued together), I didn’t want
to drill holes in them. I obtained music wire at my local hobby shop (0.15”)
and cut it to size for the various rigging elements. This took significant
time and patience to install the multiple riggings on the tail and main
wings but, in the end, looks nice. I have included a photo from the Gloster
Gladiator website that I used to help with the rigging.

Conclusion

I
have to say I enjoyed this model. It wasn’t overly complicated,
requiring substantial coordination and dexterity to assemble minuscule
pieces. It’s a solid model that well represents its subject. I started
building it as a weekend project but, as with all good intentions, my
plans were redirected. I do believe it can be done in a weekend. I highly
recommend this to anyone looking for an enjoyable build; especially those
tread heads looking for a simple aircraft to broaden their perspectives
with. Enjoy!